Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to welcome Big Iron Unreserved Online Auctions as our newest sponsor of the daily Email. Their next auction is this Wednesday, May 26- featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

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Ed writes us "Tornado just north of Hennessey. No damage reported as of yet. It touched down mainly in open field. I drove 81 nearly to Bison trying to see something. No wheat stands were laying over. Of course, this was looking from the highway. However, these tornadoes were rain-wrapped and dumped a ton of rain. The ditches were full of water nearly to the highway, so it's not hard to imagine the fields were probably a swamp underneath that wheat in some areas."

It appears that little damage came out of either this tornado or the one that was rolling on the south side of Dover- in both cases they were rain wrapped and a lot of the wet stuff fell in a hurry.

Click on the link below- it's the 24 hour Precipitation Map for Oklahoma from the Mesonet- it shows the very heaviest rains fell in western Payne County with just over three inches of rain over the last day. Lots of other areas have received over two inches of rainfall as well.

Click here for the Precip totals from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

Dr. Grandlin spoke of her experience with the general public and the general media as she has gone around the country helping promote the HBO produced movie of her life. She tells us that most people away from the farm or ranch have no idea of how animals are handled or treated- but they are hungry for knowledge. She adds that we have not done a good job of providing that knowledge and need to be proactive in getting more information out about the care given to livestock by almost everyone in the industry.

Click on the Listen Bar for a chance to hear our audio conversation with her. It's worth your time as she is one of the most fascinating people in the world when it comes to knowing animal behavior and understanding animal well being issues.

Click here for our story on Dr. Temple Grandlin at the Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare- and a chance to hear our Exclusive conversation with her.

Dr. Dan Thomson of Kansas State's Animal Science Department says that this Symposium has attracted the leading experts in North America that have helped develop and understand the proper handling of livestock and the standards that the industry is trying to get all stakeholders to honor.
There are about 200 in attendance at this conference in Manhattan, but Dr. Thomson says that there are over a thousand watching via a special videocast of all of the proceedings. Those watching come from 27 states, the District of Columbia and six foreign countries.

Click on the link below for more on this Symposium- and to hear our conversation with Dan Thomson about this event- as well as to learn more about the Norht American Commission on Animal Well Being for Cattle is being organized this week.

Click here for our visit with Dr. Dan Thomson of K-State on the Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare.

The incumbent for this District is Don Schieber of Ponca City- and the two other nominees are Curtis Vap of Newkirk and Brady Cooper, also of Newkirk.

All three names are being forwarded on to the office of Governor Brad Henry, who will select the District Five Commissioner from these wheat producers who were nominated by their peers.

Vilsack offers several specific "firewall requirements" that must be achieved by any change in the goverance plan as it impacts the NCBA's relationship with the Federation of State Beef Councils. Those points include the idea that no policy members can ever vote on any use of checkoff money- only the Federation and the Cattlemen's Beef Board can make those allocations; the Federation must continue to be an independent group; State Beef Councils that make up the Federation should not have to buy seats to be a part of any policy group in order to be a part of the Federation; Federation board members should not be voting on any policy issues and perhaps most importantly, policy organizations "should not be permitted to influence, determine outcomes, or vote on checkoff decisions."

NCBA President Fogelsong issued a Media Statement last night, indicating that there have been changes since the last information that Secretary Vilsack had received- and that he is confident that all interested parties will be satisfied that the firewalls are being maintained properly. He indicates that a meeting is planned with USDA next week to give them the latest details of the plan as it impacts the Federation of State Beef Councils and the Beef Checkoff.

Click here for more on this story from USDA and NCBA- and you can hear our Thursday Beef Buzz on this subject as well.

The reason for the Dispersal is the suddent death of Ken Jackson in April- he was the partner in J&J Cattle with Mark and Brenda Johnson and to settle his estate, this annual production sale now becomes a dispersal to sell all jointly owned animals.

You can call for more information 580-455-2256- or click on the link below for our Auction Listing of the Dispersal Sale.

Click here for more details and a link to the full catalog of this special sale in Orlando for J&J Cattle.

We also invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click on the name of the report to go to that link:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. <
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.